New Surroundings

    “Are you ready to go, dear?” Ardetha Diare asked.

    “I think so. I didn’t exactly come here with much.” Amelyna replied, picking at the loose t-shirt and shorts she had been given as her original clothes were essentially scraps after the car crash and her flight through the forest.

    “Good. As soon as Doctor Connor comes to check on you, we can leave.”

    Silence fell. They could hear people talking out in the hallway and beeping of medical equipment in nearby rooms. Amelyna felt like she should say something, she just didn’t know what. If only the overly-bleached smell of hospitals combined with that faint undertone of… something else she couldn’t quite place didn’t give her a headache. Funny how they were supposedly underground and this hospital smelled the same as all the others she’d been in. Weren’t magic users supposed to do things differently?

    A quick rap on the door. It swung inward. Doctor Connor stood in the doorway with his clipboard and white lab coat. He stepped into the room, flipping through papers. His stethoscope clicked against his badge as he walked.

    “Ah, Miss Carole.” Doctor Connor glanced up at her through his glasses. “You have recovered very well these past few days under our healers. Only a few scars and physical therapy sessions left, and the scars will heal with time. As you know, Mrs. Diare has offered to assist with the last part of your recovery, so you will be staying with her and taking it easy for the next few weeks. Alright, everything checks out. Have a good evening, both of you.”

    He smiled at them and turned to leave. They watched as he hung the clipboard back up outside and closed the door. Ardetha and Amelyna shared a look.

    “That’s your ticket out of here,” Ardetha grinned and it took about ten years off her face. “Let’s escape.”

    When they stepped out of the hospital, Amelyna blinked in the bright daylight. Wait, bright daylight? But they were underground! Above them, lighting the entire chamber was a long, narrow magelight.

    Ardetha pointed up at the magelight. “That magelight is special; it’s enchanted to reflect the time of day.”

    Amelyna also discovered the hospital was grown into the massive roots of a tree. How in the world did roots even get that big? Oh! That undertone scent in the hospital was earthy. Makes sense, really.

    Ardetha led the way down the tunnel. Buildings carved into the stone and grown into more massive roots lined the walls of the chamber. Amelyna tried to be interested in her new surroundings, but she couldn’t bring herself to have more than a passing curiosity. If only somebody were here with her. Dad, Mom, Tuli, any of them. All of them.

    “You sure are the quiet one,” Ardetha mentioned, smiling at her.

    “Oh, sorry Mrs. Diare-”

    “Please, call me Ardetha.”

    “Okay, Ardetha, I’m sorry if I’m bothering you. I just don’t have anything to say and a lot on my mind.”

    “It’s alright, dear. I understand. I lost my husband and oldest daughter. It’s been a few years, but I still miss them.”

    They continued walking in silence for a few moments.

    Amelyna glanced at the older woman. “What happens to my medical bill?”

    Ardetha chuckled. “You are an unusual one, Amelyna. How old are you?”

    “Nineteen, almost twenty in another month or two. I forget what day it is. But you didn’t answer my question.”

    “You don’t have a medical bill. Dr. Connor is one of the refugee and combat doctors, he works for the Rebellion military and they pay him a salary. If you were to cut yourself at home and need stitches, you would see a different doctor and then have a medical bill.”

    They continued walking, the tunnel coming to an end in front of them. When they reached the end, the tunnel joined a massive chamber that stretched on farther than she could see into a slow curve. Amelyna had never seen anything like it before. Every so often, the cave would branch off into tunnels like the one they just emerged from. Along the very center of the chamber ran a canal with docks on both sides and a multitude of small boats or canoes tied down. People and creatures of all kinds strolled up and down both sides of the cave as if it were Main Street, entering and exiting all of the buildings lining the cave walls. The only thing missing was cars, but people rode scooters, mopeds, and bikes, some even having carts attached to the back.

    “Do you like it? Our own little flourishing underground city.”

    Despite herself, Amelyna felt fascinated. How did they manage all of this?

    They crossed the street toward the canal. The water sat deep below the street level so the boats could easily travel under the bridges arching across it. Every few yards, a narrow staircase led down to the docks.

    Ardetha led the way down one of the staircases. “How are you with water?”

    Amelyna shrugged. “Okay, I guess? I get wet, just like everybody else. Boats don’t bother me. I can swim.”

    “I don’t mean boats, dear. I can travel significantly faster than boats can.”

    “What do you mean?”

    Ardetha stepped sideways off the dock. She slid into the water of the canal, hardly making a ripple. Through the clear water, Amelyna watched as her legs merged together into a fleshy tail. Her skin bubbled as scales and fins sprouted. Flaps of skin opened on the sides of her neck, just below her jaw. It both disgusted and fascinated Amelyna.

    Surfacing, Ardetha focused her green eyes on Amelyna, and chuckled. “I think that grimace is the most emotion I’ve ever seen on you. Never seen a transformation before? Normally the transformation is instantaneous, but I slowed it down so you could see.”

    “You… really didn’t have to. I’ve seen my brother transform, but he was a changeling. It looks different.” Amelyna cleared her throat. “Mermaid. You’re a mermaid.”

    “Yes, I am.” A smile of amusement pulled on her lips. “You have strong observational skills. How much do you know about mermaids?”

    “What I just saw is the extent of my knowledge. And actually completely different from everything I thought I knew about mermaids.”

    Ardetha chuckled. “I’m not surprised. Mermaids are elemental beings. We can control water. So not only can I flip my tail to swim, I can control the water to further propel myself. How long can you hold your breath?”

    “I don’t know. An average amount of time?”

    “Well, you should be fine. We don’t live too far away. Hop in.”

    Eh, whatever. Amelyna hopped into the water next to Ardetha. Unlike Ardetha, she splashed enough to make small waves for the nearby boats. It had been years since the last time she went swimming. Tuli hated the water.

    Tuli…

    Amelyna lost all desire to surface. She wanted nothing more than to sink to the bottom of the canal and fall asleep, never to rise again. Sadly, she floated. Her head resurfaced of its own accord.

    “Hang on tight dear, right here.” Ardetha took Amelyna’s arms and wrapped them around her shoulders. “And hold your breath. I also advise you to close your eyes, but that’s up to you.”

    Amelyna took a deep breath and held it. Ardetha dove to the bottom of the canal. They rocketed through the water. Clinging desperately to the mermaid’s shoulders, Amelyna squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face into Ardetha’s streaming hair.

    Just as Amelyna began to feel out of breath, they surfaced. Amelyna released Ardetha, gasping in air. When she looked back, the older woman looked entirely human again. Together, they climbed out of the water and onto the dock walkway. As Amelyna stood, something felt like worms on her skin. She jumped.

    Ardetha laughed. Water slid from Amelyna’s skin, hair, and clothes into a puddle at her feet, leaving her dry. Curious, she turned to see Ardetha’s fingers guiding the stream of water back into the canal.

    Wait, she really could control water? How in the world…?

    “Right up this way, dear.” Ardetha commented, sliding her hand into Amelyna’s elbow and pulling her up another narrow staircase to street level.

    They emerged still in the main chamber, but near a branching tunnel. The main chamber still stretched on through the curve past what Amelyna could see in both directions. How big was this place?

    Ardetha led the way down the branching tunnel. Buildings also lined the wall of the tunnel and Amelyna studied them as they walked. These buildings looked less like shops and businesses and more like homes. Some had paint on the outside of the stone houses, or paneling attached to the outside of root houses. Some even had pits carved out of the stone in front of their house and filled it with dirt, grass, and various plants in a sort of yard. Could magelights give off nutrients like natural sunlight?

    Only a few houses down Ardetha stopped, causing Amelyna to nearly run into her. “Home sweet home.”

    Amelyna turned to face the stone house Ardetha gestured to. It wasn’t painted on the outside, but it did have a carved stone fountain in place of a yard. A rather pretty one with fish leaping and spitting water from their mouths. Made sense for a mermaid.

    “Come inside, I’ll show you around.”

    Ardetha led the way inside, giving Amelyna the grand tour. It was only a little smaller than a typical four-person house. Maybe it felt smaller due to the lack of windows in any room except those attached to the front of the house. The main floor had a mostly open-floor plan to help reduce this. Yet, in each of the windowless rooms, a divot was carved into the wall where a magelight that acted like the main one “outside.” In some senses, it could be a window, just minus scenery.

    The strangest part had to be the basement. Along one wall the stairs descended to a small landing. The rest was a spring-fed body of water of some kind. She couldn’t call it a swimming pool because it wasn’t. Part of it was shallow enough to swim safely in, but against the opposite wall it deepened and led out of the house.

    “It connects to an underground lake where the kelp farms and fish ranches are.” Ardetha told her when she asked about it. “That’s where my daughter Samiasa is. She’s around your age, I hope you get along.”

    Ardetha opened a door to a room at the back of the house on the second floor. “…and here is your room. I do hope you like it.”

    The room, like many others in the house, was painted a shade of green, this shade darker than other rooms. Like the other two bedrooms, the bed frame was carved from stone, but had the normal trappings of a mattress and box spring. A desk similarly carved from the stone sat below the “window” magelight, and the room was completed with a wooden dresser and a small closet.

    “Yes, this is very nice. Thank you or your generosity, Ardetha.” Amelyna tried her best to smile for her host.

    Ardetha didn’t smile back, her eyes serious. “You don’t have to fake for me, child. I know you don’t know how to process all of this. I remember the feeling well. This will be your room for the next three and a half weeks while you finish your physical therapy and make your decision to stay or leave.”

    Then Ardetha’s face broke out into a smile. “Make yourself at home, Amelyna.”